Korean Job Discussion Forums

[SuperHero]

I'm in a pissy mood today - enjoy



Native speaker instructors teaching in the freshmen English program at universities in Korea are an expense not an asset and are treated accordingly regardless of their level of professionalism or contribution to the program.

I�ve been teaching in Korea for eleven years with seven of those years at the university level. Over the years I�ve developed a lot of contacts at other universities. The end result is pretty much the same across the board. There are some universities that offer a slightly better package, but there is always something that reduces the value. Sometimes that is tangible and other times the negative is intangible.

Universities claim to value English education for their students, but yet they do little to encourage instructors to perform well. Salaries for the most part are low with few raises or rewards. Instructors with a degree in philosophy quite often get paid exactly the same as an instructor with a degree in Applied Linguistics, and/or a CELTA certificate.

Experience is also not taken into account when hiring or determining salary conditions. At the university I am working at now a new teacher with a B.A. in philosophy and no university teaching experience will take home the same salary as a teacher on staff for four years, with an M.A. in Applied Linguistics & a CELTA plus further experience at other universities. How does this promote quality teaching? It doesn�t.

Yet the university is asking us to be more professional. Despite this request, we are not provided with adequate equipment in the classrooms. At times I feel lucky to even have a single piece of chalk. The air conditioning doesn�t work properly. Even when it is working, it is turned off between 12 and 1 everyday despite classes holding 30 students with one tiny window. Within 5 minutes of the air conditioner being turned off the classroom is unbearable. We are expected to teach in this and not finish classes early � how is this professional treatment of faculty or students who are arguably paying customers.

The teachers on staff who do contribute to the program and put in extra effort for the students are in no way rewarded or treated differently than the teacher who does little planning and contributes nothing to the program. The only reward is from teacher evaluations that are conducted at the end of the semester. Instructors who get over 90% evaluation receive 10,000-30,000 won gift certificates to Starbucks. This is so underwhelming as to almost be a negative incentive.

The biggest obstacle to encouraging professionalism and quality teaching at universities is the term limit. There isn�t any government regulation about term limits for foreigners � this is just an urban myth amongst language instructors. Various universities have implemented limits ranging from three to five years. When a teacher is employed at a school with a term limit there is absolutely no reason to contribute to the program or care about anything related to the school. What value is there to the instructor to work hard when they know they will be kicked out the door after a short time.

Universities lose quality instructors who can provide stability to a program and mentoring to new teachers. Instead they end up with teachers who have nothing invested in the school and only care about their paycheck.
Additionally input from teachers is generally ignored in favor of administrators with no knowledge of teaching theory or language teaching experience deciding how to use resources and making pedagogical decisions based on what they think language teaching should be. Throwing a foreigner in a classroom with a textbook does not equal quality language instruction.

A final issue is housing. Putting foreign teachers in dormitory housing with students is not fair to the teachers. First teachers are much older than students and often have families who need bigger spaces than a dorm room provides. Most teachers who are in their thirties, forties and beyond do not want to live with or hang around young students with no responsibilities. Further the housing allowance that is sometimes provided as an alternative to campus housing is usually inadequate. 200,000 to 400,000 is not nearly enough to pay rent on a reasonably sized apartment anywhere in Seoul. I cannot say for cities outside of Seoul.

[flakfizer]

I hear you. Many of the things you mention sound very familiar. I am in my fifth year at my particular college and newbies get the same pay as me. One teacher with a Masters in English went and asked if she might get paid more due to having better qualifications than most. She was told "no." My last three "raises" haven't come close to keeping up with inflation. We don't get any housing and rent has gone up quite a bit here in Seoul over the last several years. I fell less and less valued there. If it weren't for the vacation, I'd be gone by now.

[Hanson]

Nail, meet head.

EDIT: At least you get Starbucks certificates - count yourself lucky!!!

[SuperHero]

[anyway]

Ah, the 'where's my reward?' complaint. You're a real teacher. A better teacher. The others don't measure up. 11 years in Korea and you want more money? This isn't Survivor.

You're a native speaker. End of story.

[Hanson]

Another key point is the level of commitment management implicitly expects from the students, a level which is embarrassingly low. Allow me to elaborate.

Students evaluate their instructors. These evaluations are more of a popularity contest and certainly in no way evaluate the effectiveness of the teachers. Questions could include:
"How often did you (the student) attend this class?";
"How effective was the textbook used?" - textbooks are assigned, not chosen by the teacher;
"Was the instructor punctual?"
and a variety of other inane questions. Students select their answer from 1 - 5, with 5 being the best.

That being said, teachers routinely get a class evaluation where one jaded student, who probably didn't get the grade they wanted, retaliates by selecting 1's throughout the evaluation - we receive the tallies from each class (it is anonymous). This appears as a row of one student responding 1 to each question, while the other students in the class select a few 3's, a bunch of 4's and a bunch of 5's. This is obviously not a reflection on the teacher, but more the revenge of a pissed off student who wants to get back at the teacher. This has happened to everyone I teach with at least once.

Also, the amount of work given to the students directly affects these evaluations. So, if the students feel they've been worked too hard, or given too much homework, or feel that "too high" expectations have been placed on them, the teacher's evaluations will suffer. Less is apparently more.

Students also have the option of leaving written comments, which can be fun to read. Informative comments might include:
"^^"
"재밌다!"
"감사합니다"
"어려워요..."
"ㅋㅋㅋ..."
and sometimes also include negative comments that have very little to do with the actual material being taught or the way in which it was taught. These evaluations filter up to management, of course.

All this stuff about evaluations has brought me to this: Other than paperwork - submission of lesson plans, exams, evaluations used in class - the student evaluation of teachers is the most important basis for teacher renewal by management.

In other words, keep the students happy, hand in the paperwork on time, don't rock the boat too much, and we'll sign you on for another year.

[matthews_world]

You guys get more time off, though. Most university teachers from what I hear can work more than 1 job. Plus you guys get to meet handsome and attractive students, whichever floats your boat.

Public school teachers are full-time and cannot work outside their schools legally.

[inkoreaforgood]

[nicholas_chiasson]

logic dictates that as long as their is a supply of people who would rather teach uni which excedes the demand prices will be flat. As world economies in the e-2 countries drops, more people will be interested in teaching in Korea. thus prices will be and are flat. Second, as long as Korean Domestic English Education is viewed as a poor substitute for study abroad, Foreign Teachers will NOT be considered an asset, nor will they be rewarded for their professionalism.

[SuperHero]

[kimchikowboy]

[nicholas_chiasson]

I hear even at 23 I'm at the upper end for host bar work. So no career change yet.

[the_beaver]

[hogwonguy1979]

upon second thought...

[weatherman]

I find the only way to keep myself from forming negative feelings is not to think about the deceit, duplicity, and incompetency of the management at my university. I find focusing on delivering a quality product to my students, and in taking pride in my classes, makes teaching all worth it. If I didn�t enjoy teaching, or couldn�t enjoy it somehow, I would have left Korea long ago. Be professional for yourself. Expecting something from your university is like buying a lotto ticket. I would have left the university work long ago if it wasn�t for my personal enjoyment of teaching young adults. I say this as somebody who has been in university work for ten years (two different schools), and I plan on staying around for a long time.